Florence and Michael won’t have another chance to wreak havoc in the Atlantic Basin. The names of these two storms, which caused extensive fatalities and damage from Florida north to Virginia last year, have been retired by the World Meteorological Organization’s Region IV Hurricane Committee.

WMO supports climate policy-making by providing authoritative advice and information on climate change mitigation and adaptation. WMO draws from the best available scientific expertise from the National Hydrological and Meteorological Services of its Members, and international data centres and agencies. Moreover, WMO promotes a better understanding of the societal impacts of climate change within the United Nations system.

Recent developments in the climate change arena, including the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the publication of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C, have noted the potential need for negative emission technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to limit temperature increase.

The African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) has issued a call for greater investment by national governments and development partners, in weather, climate and water services in order to promote sustainable development, cope with climate change and protect life and property on the continent.

Increasing levels of airborne pollutants deposited either through gravity (i.e. free-falling) or washed out by rain can result in detrimental effects to crops, human health and vulnerable ecosystems by altering critical and delicate chemical balances. Identifying areas most at risk and which would most benefit from measures to control excessive pollutant load is crucial.

The start of 2019 has been marked by high impact weather in many parts of the world, including record heat, wildfires and rainfall in South America and Australasia, dangerous and extreme cold in North America, and heavy snowfall in the Alps and Himalayas.

The Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in Agriculture (PACC-RRC) Project held its Networking Conference in Rome from 4-5 February 2019.This event was the culmination of the PACC-RRC project that included four training courses for participants from 17 CILSS and ECOWAS countries of West Africa. The project addressed one of the highest priority areas for WMO Members—the development of climate services to mitigate the risks of climate change on agriculture—enabling stronger climate change adaptation measures and disaster risk reduction through better analysis of climate...

The full Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion is now available. It shows that actions taken under the Montreal Protocol have led to decreases in the atmospheric abundance of controlled ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) and the start of the recovery of stratospheric ozone.

In a clear sign of continuing long-term climate change associated with record atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have been confirmed as the four warmest years on record.